Electric warp stop-motions are well known in the weaving trade. Their function is to stop the loom when the warp thread breaks. Toward this end, as is well known in the art, as each warp thread leaves the warp beam and passes over the whip roll, it is passed through a drop wire which is an integral part of the electric stop-motion. The electric stop-motion is positioned between the warp beam and the heddles in the harness mechanism which forms the shed. Electric warp stop-motions have long been known and need not be described as the support mechanism of this invention is useful with any desired electric warp stop-motion utilizing drop wires and electrodes.
As is well known throughout the trade, the positioning of the warp stop-motion device is critical to the grain or the appearance of the fabric. It is therefore of great importance to provide means for rapidly and accurately shifting or adjusting the warp stop-motion device longitudinally and laterally of the loom and vertically, as desired. Prior attempts to provide a suitable support for electric warp stop-motion devices are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,858,857 issued Nov. 4, 1958 to Jaime Picanol, U.S. Pat. No. 3,421,552 issued Jan. 14, 1969 to Stanley J. Sotek, U.S. Pat. No. 3,584,659 issued June 15, 1971 to Erwin Pfarrwaller, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,358,718 issued Dec. 19, 1967 to Harold J. Bager, et. al.
The support mechanisms of the prior art are satisfactory to permit adjustments of the warp stop-motion device longitudinally and laterally of the loom and also vertically, but the time required to make the adjustments is objectionable and it is objectionable to need to make adjustments after the stop-motion mechanism is moved to work on the loom or replace a warp beam.
In recent years, loom operating speed have increased tremendously and the size of the warp beam has correspondingly increased in order to provide a larger supply of yarn and reduce the number of times the warp beam had to be replaced during operation of the high speed loom.
In certain prior art support mechanisms for electric stop-motion devices it is necessary to remove the stop-motion mechanism in order to replace the new enlarged warp beam and it is consequently necessary to readjust the position of the warp stop-motion mechanism when said mechanism is reinstalled on the loom after the warp beam has been changed. This results in considerable down time for the loom with a consequent loss of production.